Comic Anger

Updated May 28, 2001 11:59 p.m. ET

Remember Yosemite Sam from the old Loony Toons cartoons? Bugs Bunny's red-haired, mustacioed nemesis spent his life fuming as Bugs slipped through his fingers. "Ooh, I'm gonna get you next time, you no-good flea-bitten varmint!" he would splutter.

The image comes to mind at the stammering sound coming from Beijing these days over a couple of minor incidents that involve Tibet. Last month Chinese leaders threw a fit that a self-proclaimed Tibetan national soccer team was aiming to play a match against Greenland in...